


Eight Years Later

by itsaquinnquinnsituation



Series: X Years Later [4]
Category: Newcastle (2008)
Genre: Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 20:02:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1830505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsaquinnquinnsituation/pseuds/itsaquinnquinnsituation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly what the title implies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eight Years Later

**Author's Note:**

> None of the characters or the plot of the original movie belong to me. I am not making money off my work, which is written for entertainment purposes only. This is one of the several bits I will have as "X years later."
> 
> This is my universe and exactly how I see it. Writing should be enjoyed, not judged.
> 
> I highly recommend everyone to watch this movie.

"And her name is Melissa?“

"No, Alissa. Alissa. Andy, have you even been listening? Melinda is her older sister… the one that I had a one-night stand with… A mo… no, two months ago.”

“Right, sorry. Just trying to keep the story straight.”

Jesse looks at him folded in the armchair, with his usual cat-like smile that is just so Andy, and he wants to get irritated at him but he can’t. The sun falls on Andy’s clear, sun-tanned face and plays in his mischievous blue-grey eyes. His hair, which seems to be sun-bleached all year round, is lush and wavy and even longer than before. He’s wearing a navy hoodie over some kind of a dark top, and khaki shorts. He’s barefoot, like always.

Jesse doesn’t come to visit their place all that often, preferring to meet them in town or at parties. They have always been open to visitors and people spending the night on the couch, but nobody ever has. Jesse wouldn’t want to admit it, but it might be the fact that they are sharing a room, that they are sharing a bed, that still irks some of their friends. It always surprised him just how little their place looked like it belonged to young people. If you didn’t know who lived here, you really couldn’t tell, well, except for the fact, that there are no females. It is on the bottom floor of a small townhouse half-way between the city center and the ocean shore, where Andy now works as a surfing instructor. It is relatively clean, much cleaner than Jesse’s, Nick’s and Nate’s house, and it houses several pieces of mismatched furniture, some that has probably come from Andy’s place and his neighbours’, some that Jesse vaguely recognizes as belonging to his own parents and grandfather. There is nothing extra in the space, no posters, wall hangings, or other decorations, save for some line lights that they had hung on the ceiling above their bed (to emulate stars or something like that, he remembers) but the way the sun had unquestioningly claimed this apartment with its scuffed up hardwood floors and yellowish-beige wall paint, made it incredibly cosy and welcoming…

“Well, go on” – Andy prompts him and smiles.

Jesse had come to him for advice. In situations like this, when asking Nate or Nick would have resulted in dirty jokes and laughter; and coming to his mother – in long, dragged out conversations, he always came to Andy. Andy never judged, never mocked, never made contemptuous remarks, never scoffed and never, ever, made him feel stupid for asking. No matter what the subject matter was. 

“When is my brother going to be here?”

Andy doesn’t even bother to check the time:

“Any minute now.”

Fergus is working as an assistant to the creativity director at a very prominent advertisement firm. It is a big accomplishment for somebody so young, and he makes some very good money. Out of all of them, he was the only one to have actually graduated from college (Andy had gone there for two years, with the only apparent reason of spending more time with Fergus, seeing how he dropped out right after Fergus graduated, and neither Jesse, nor Nate ever even applied). He moved up in ranks a couple times, already within the first year, and is now very comfortable and mostly enjoys his work. So, he is really doing quite well. Jesse doesn’t really allow himself to dwell much on those things, because it is still a bit of a love-and-hate between him and his brother, except for now it is more like a love-and-envy, and he really does try to keep it on the love spectrum of things seeing how his brother had managed to put their checkered past well behind him…

“So the thing is… now that Scotty is finally out, he is going to need a place to live and… you know, Nate and Nick have been at the house much longer than me and most of the furniture is theirs, so… you know, Scotty’s parents really don’t want anything to do with him anymore, so I thought… I mean, I thought, it might be a good time to move out and let him stay in my room…”

“It’s got to be very tough for him.”

“He is just happy to be free” – Jesse looks at him and Andy just nods. No, Andy was there of course, through both of Scotty’s year-long trips to the local jail, but then again, Andy is sitting in a cozy armchair with vintage upholstery in a sun-drenched little flat that does not have beer bottles laying around… so it can’t be the same thing for him that it is for Jesse.

“Well, and” – Jesse continues, - “I found this room for rent, that is quite neat and… I thought of – you know – asking Alissa if she might be interested in…”

“What about Melinda?”

“What?”

“No, the… the other one. I’m sorry” – Andy raises his hands apologetically, - “I thought you were dating Melinda.”

“I was! Earlier! God, Andy, that was like a whole year ago! We broke up, then there was Katie, then we got back together for like a month, but then… then I started dating Alissa.”

“Her sister?”

“Yes, not Katie’s, Melinda’s sister, yes.”

“Uh-huh… and then?”

“Well, nothing. I mean, there were things, like that one night stand with Melinda after I started seeing her sister and that one night that I…”

A slam of the door and rustling noises that come from the hall interrupt him. He watches Andy immediately lose track of the story as his whole face lights up: 

“Hold on, I’ll warn him that you are over.”

But he doesn’t really get a chance to, because Fergus, dressed in sleek black slacks, crispy white shirt and a skinny black tie, proceeds straight into the living room and is somewhat startled by Jesse’s presence. Jesse is in his direct line of sight right away so he immediately halts and gets that wary look on face that he sports every time he is met with something unexpected. Physically, he has not changed too much either since that fateful summer in 2008. His hair is still dark, though more even and without extra colours, and still in a long haircut (ostensibly, because he likes it that way, but actually, because Andy loves it), he is taller and broader and he has not painted his nails in years. But some things never change, such as the way he momentarily bites his lower lip and visibly tenses up. His hand automatically goes to the back of Andy’s armchair where it is eagerly met with Andy’s two as Andy leans back and looks up at him, and as their eyes meet and Andy smiles at him, Fergus relaxes before turning back to his brother. And Jesse knows, he knows it for sure, that Fergus is very happy to see him, always, even if he doesn’t show it. Course he, Fergus, does not have a problem with showing affection, not anymore, not after Andy, with his constant checking-up-on-you looks, constant guiding and constant caressing, had rubbed off on Fergus so much over time, that the latter had started doing the same without noticing it, but it is still hard for Jesse, and both of them know, so they don’t. They nod at each other, say “hey” and that’s that.

“I brought beer, you guys, I think it’s still cold” – Fergus shows Jesse a case, but then again he is looking at Andy, who is beaming up at him from his chair, - “Let me just go get changed.”

“No” – Andy holds onto his sleeve, - “Just take off your tie and throw on some jeans. Keep that shirt on… I like it” – the kind of look that the two give each other at the end of that phrase makes Jesse blush and he looks away, feeling his heart race a little. And that’s after seven years of being a couple. He mentally shakes his head. He finds it incredibly strange, but not as strange as the fact that when the two of them go out to parties or clubbing (and they do still go out, even if less than their other friends), they always end up spending more time talking to each other than to other people. 

Jesse never really understood just how their whole story unraveled, back in the day, because it was so clear from the very first time these two saw each other, that there was a connection. He could have thought, perhaps, that either or both of them were uncomfortable with not being straight, but that wasn’t the truth – Fergus proclaimed he was into boys one day when he was barely eleven, and Andy… well, Andy has never said anything, or dated anyone, he was always saying that his relationship with his surfboard was more than enough… until Fergus. But even then, they were “just friends” for over a year, that being Andy’s wish, who was older. And Fergus was happy to wait, as it seemed, but he was more than elated when Andy finally yielded to their thing, which was far too imminent to resist. 

So Jesse watches Andy watch Fergus disappear into their bedroom before he turns back to his visitor with a smile slightly brighter than before. And he probably wants to present an appearance of being ready to listen again, but his cheeks are flushed under the bronze of his tan and Jesse just chuckles, prompting Andy to laugh, understanding. So they don’t talk, just each crack a beer instead. 

“Hmmghh” – Jesse hears Fergus grunt in the kitchen, where he must have walked over to directly from the bedroom, - “I’m sort of hungry, do you guys want anything?”

Andy looks over at Jesse and Jesse shakes his head in a“no.” He then calls out to the kitchen:

“Just finish that protigurt, it’s in the blue lid Tupperware.”

“No” – Fergus moans exasperatedly and it’s nothing too dramatic, just a genuinely exhausted moan.

“Otherwise it will go bad. I was planning to make some fresh in the morning.”

Fergus grunts again, in apparent acquiescence.

“What’s that?” – Jesse mouthes to Andy after the latter turns around again.

Andy gestures with his hands:

“Half-greek, half-regular yogurt with a protein bar crushed and mixed into it.”

Jesse makes a face:

“Sounds nasty.”

“It is” – Andy nods, face becoming more serious, - “But for some reason it really helps him control his hypoglycemia. It looks like we have finally gotten the upper hand on that thing. He’s only fainted once in the past half-a-year” – he pauses and Jesse watches his face go through a momentary expression of pain before it relaxes into a smile again, - “But since we discovered this stuff levels out his blood sugar for hours, he has it almost every day for breakfast, and sometimes takes it to work. There are days we even eat it for dinner.”

“You eat that shit too?”

“Of course” – Andy shrugs, - “I’m not going to let him suffer alone.”

Jesse looks at him.

“I believe right now you are violating all sorts of patient privacy laws!” – Fergus calls out suddenly from the kitchen, his voice somewhat muffled by the noises of whatever he is doing.

Andy’s whole body immediately turns in that direction:

“He is family, I’m allowed!”

“He’s my brother, Andy, siblings are not included in the definition of immediate family!” – Fergus pokes his face back into the living room, - “It’s parents, children and spouses only!”

The kind of face he makes as he says those few words before disappearing into the kitchen again make Jesse’s mouth automatically form into a “What” whilst his eyes open so wide that Andy laughs out as he sees his expression.

“No, no” – He waves his hand around, blue-grey eyes all but sparkling with joy, - “We are still waiting until next July, like we planned… although sometimes I wish…” – his wistful musings are interrupted as Fergus comes out from the kitchen with a white cereal bowl, crosses Andy’s armchair and positions himself on its arm, leaning with his left elbow onto the back, and he is all ready to transfer the bowl to his left hand and start eating, but not before he gazes for a good couple of seconds into Andy’s eyes as Andy momentarily leans his head against his arm and smiles, before both, as if on cue, turn their full attention to Jesse.

But Jesse is far too engrossed in his thoughts to notice this move. He came to them thinking about his girlfriend and whether it was a good time to ask her to move in with him, but now he is looking at his brother and his best friend and his thoughts are in a completely different place. He mentally chuckles at Fergus’s choice of seat – he himself was sitting on the end of a three-seat couch and Fergus really could have sat next to him, there was plenty of room, but quite clearly, he was feeling a lot more comfortable all but sitting in Andy’s lap. And he thinks of the way these two are always inseparable, literally, as if they are attracted by a gravitational force. No matter where they are or who they are with, they always have to be standing, sitting, walking or swimming next to each other, and if someone accidentally gets in between, they will immediately move to resume status quo, and it is so obviously unconscious, so obviously mechanical, that Jesse cannot help but smile every time he notices. He thinks of the time he poked his head into their bedroom and was surprised once again. Given the size of the room, which could have easily accommodated a queen or even bigger-sized bed, it would have seemed strange that they chose to keep their narrow college-years double bed, seeing how both were tall broad-shouldered men, but that was only if you didn’t realize that the whole point of having it for these two was that they had no way to fit without touching. He wonders, as he looks on at them, perched in that old sixties chair, if they notice how they lean their heads towards each other, and how, though their eyes and their ears are now all on him, their bodies demonstrate an almost palpable connection.

“So” – Fergus says, shoving another spoonful of nasty white stuff into his mouth, - “How is it going with you and Alissa?”

“Oh, you remembered” – Jesse gives him a faint smile. The upside of having fewer opportunities to talk to Fergus than he does to Andy is that Fergus has a much better memory, - “Well that’s sort of exactly… I kind of… I already told Andy some stuff…”

“You can repeat, he won’t mind.”

Jesse looks from Fergus to Andy and Andy doesn’t even nod, just continues looking at him with his cat-like smile and Jesse thinks of the millions of times, especially in the earlier years, when both Fergus and Andy were asked a question, Andy would always be the one to answer, hell, sometimes he answered questions directed only at Fergus, and Fergus never nodded or even looked at him, just stood by with a nonplussed calm demeanour as though he were a ventriloquist speaking through his dummy. And they never corrected each other, never, probably because there was never any need to correct. And they neither fussed nor talked over each other, as if they could feel exactly what the other one is about to say or do. 

“Something like this” – Jesse thinks, watching Fergus give one last lick to his spoon just as Andy reaches into a box on a small table by the side of the chair and, without looking, holds up a tissue in his right hand. Fergus takes it also without looking, wipes off his mouth, crumbles it up and puts it into his now-empty bowl which he then places into Andy’s still extended hand and Andy, just as silently, transfers it onto the table. Jesse chuckles to himself, turning around, and hell, just as he guessed, the tiny TV that he remembers belonging to his uncle, is in direct line of the armchair. 

“It’s not that important” – he quips, observing how Fergus’ now-free left hand has made its way onto Andy’s shoulder whilst Andy’s right hand found its home spooned into Fergus’s palm, - “How’s your job?”

And he notes, how, though he did not address his question to either of them in particular, Andy gives Fergus a tiny sideways look, that is so full of pride that Fergus’ cheeks get immediately flushed as he begins to talk, and Jesse almost laughs, sipping his beer. 

When he finally leaves, it is well into the night, and it is entirely dark outside, cicadas out on their usual routine. Andy offers him a ride, but it is not that far, and Jesse is happy to walk. He is almost scared to admit to himself how sweet he finds it, as he turns around to give them one last final wave, only to find that Andy, who has not yet even closed the door all the way, is already turning to Fergus with this peculiar gleam in his eyes, that is so raw and feverish as to be considered downright obscene if caught in public. Jesse snickers to himself, just letting them be. He thinks about it. He didn’t get to do what he came here to do. He didn’t get to ask them for advice on a very particular matter. But the thing is, he didn’t end up needing to. They gave him the answer already. Only they didn’t speak it, they showed it.


End file.
